Mike Spinelli

The fervor with which Brits protect the commons gives us a warm feeling in our various bits, but we get ornery when they cut too close to our purview. For instance, a UK watchdog group is upholding a complaint against a Mazda print ad for what they feel is a reckless usage of blurring effects and text promoting dangerous driving. We'll let the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) explain themselves:

The ASA considered that the claims "PLEASE REMOVE ALL LOOSE CHANGE", "Hold on tight", "added exhilaration" and "NOW THAT'S ZOOM-ZOOM", together with the image of a moving car against a blurred background, made speed the predominant message of the ad. We concluded that the ad was irresponsible and encouraged fast, aggressive driving and asked Mazda to amend it. We asked them to seek help from the CAP Copy Advice team when devising similar campaigns. The ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Social responsibility), 10.1 (Safety), 48.1, 48.2 and 48.3 (Motoring).

(CAP Copy Advice team? Mr. Orwell, call the front desk.) Mazda pointed out the ad was meant to convey a sensation similar to that a driver would experience in a roadster designed to be fun to drive, but was slapped down by the schoolmarms that be. And we thought dealing with the insurance lobby was tough.